Language

Sex

A young man kissing a young woman says "I love you ... and I have a condom." A daughter references how her father and his girlfriend are having sex "three times a night." Lovemaking noises are heard. A brief sex scene leaves much to the imagination while still conveying the facts of the matter. Two characters rooting through a woman's things find and discuss her vibrator. Some additional kissing.

Violence

Extensive horror violence, blood, and gore, with slashing, stabbing, and fighting. Mutilated, disfigured, and burnt bodies appear to the main character as apparitions. Knives and hypodermics are brandished as weapons. A character is seen being pulled form the water, dead. A character has wrist scars from a suicide attempt. Characters manifest supernatural deformities before threatening the main character.

American remake of Korean horror film is violent but dull.

what parents need to know

Parents need to know that this moody supernatural horror movie is very gory and violent, with everything from mutilated corpses and lots of flowing blood to contorted human bodies speaking and moving. The story revolves around a widowed father whose daughters object to his relationship with the woman who nursed their dying mother; the film doesn't explore this at great length, but it provides a sexual subplot that runs through the film. The main character has been institutionalized after a breakdown; the movie also includes teen drinking, strong language (including "f--k" and "s--t") and references to sex.

what families can talk about

Families can talk about the central plot point -- what challenges do families face after the death of a parent? How does this movie exaggerate some of those real-life issues? Do you think it's trying to send a particular message?

Why ar Asian horror films so popular asmaterial for Hollywood remakes. How does their typical style of violence differ from other kinds of horror movies?

This review is provided by Common Sense Media. For more information, visit commonsense.org

Tomatometer®

Audience

Top Critic Reviews

Rotten: It rummages around in familiar domestic genres looking for a reason to exist.

- A.O. Scott, New York Times, Friday, January 30, 2009

Rotten: Unremarkable, unimaginative and unnecessary. Check out the superior original instead.

- Ali Catterall, Film4, Thursday, June 24, 2010

Rotten: The Uninvited may strike even viewers who don't know the original as disarmingly familiar.

- Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out New York, Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Audience Reviews

3 stars

A rare case of an American remake that is superior in quality to the original one. Here the tension is carefully carried out in a much more concise plot that wisely avoids the numerous twists of Kim Ji-Woon's story and presents a more compelling reason to get scared.

- blacksheepboy, Monday, August 30, 2010

3 stars

While many people are just so put off by this film for many reasons, I was very surprised by how it actually turned out.
Although the original, "A Tale of Two Sisters", was an epic movie that delivered certain moods and feelings that this movie (and most other films to date) couldn't quite capture, this film was still just great.
One thing to understand was that this movie was completely westernized. Remakes such as "The Grudge" take place in Japan, but the main characters are replaced with an American or European cast, and sometimes the story just doesn't quite fit the way it should with that type of a cast. In this film, the "A Tale of Two Sisters" story is completely translated into an American setting, in the north in a small town. The characters are tweaked a little to accommodate the new setting, and so are some of the scenes and plot lines. This is where many fans of the original get upset and get their panties in a bunch.
If this film was truly remade true to the original, it would just be the original film itself being remade 5 years later with the same cast and same script. This film is honestly one of the best Asian-horror remakes that has been made in the past 3 or 4 years if not ever. The cast gives solid performances and there were little or no plot holes. There were actually less plot holes in this film than the original. Of course I liked the original more, but I'm just saying this film executed certain things that the first film didn't, just like the first film executed certain things this film didn't. They are meant to be similar but different, and that is what makes both of them worth seeing.

- YodaMasterJedi, Thursday, April 8, 2010

1 star

A tale of two friggin' annoying sisters, Never liked the original but at least it had a good cast & tolerable characters, Browning & Kebbel are annoying and simply can't act